


The Olive Branch that Proves the Shore

by Renegon_Paragade



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Non-Permanent Character Death, blood mention, btw Shepard's gender is not mentioned in this so you can imagine your own, concussion, mention of burns/bulletholes, mentions of secondary character death, spoilers for Mass Effect 3 ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-14 14:45:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5748418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Renegon_Paragade/pseuds/Renegon_Paragade
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruised, beaten, and slightly delirious, Shepard must make a decision that will change the path of history (aka a semi-happy ending rewrite)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Olive Branch that Proves the Shore

**Author's Note:**

> After finishing ME3, I couldn’t accept the ending, so here’s my take on what really happened. If it seems kind of bullshitty/far-fetched, just remember the actual endings. Also, this is my first fanfic in over a year, probably closer to two, so if you have any suggestions for my writing/see any errors please tell me (Title from Sea of Atlas by Sleeping at Last).
> 
> EDIT: I'm trying to fix my writing. The plot is staying the same, I'm jut making the words flow better. This will probably happen a few times.

  You wish it would shut up

  Everything is too bright, too loud. You can barely process everything that's happening. You know that the star brat is prattling on about ‘another way’ or something like that, you know thousands of people are dying, but all you want right now is for everyone to shut up.

  You had done it. You managed to get to the beam. You managed to push through hell, get past the Illusive Man, open the Citadel, and attach the Crucible. You were happy. You were going to finally be able to stop, to go back to sleep. You feel the burns and bullet holes on your body; you should be dying to the sight of the reapers getting blown out of the galaxy. Instead, your concussed brain is trying to make a decision that will affect every being in the galaxy.

  At least Star Brat has finally stopped talking. Now it's just watching you, waiting for you to make a decision. You start walking down the path, towards the intersection. When you finally limp your way there, you pause to consider your options.

  You could control the Reap- no, _no_ , that isn’t even an option. You aren't going to even think about that option. You turn away from the blue light’s pull. You will never be like him.

  You turn instead to the alluring red light. Destroy. That’s what you said you would do. You promised to destroy every Reaper in the galaxy. You promised every dead body, every parentless child, every lost soul that you would make the Reapers pay for their crimes. But the price is too high. You remember the Geth, their simple question, and Tali’s answer; yes, this unit does have a soul. You remember EDI, all of her questions about what it truly means to be alive. You remember her face when she told you that she now knew. But mostly, you remember a mission that seemed insignificant at the time, a little rouge VI, and it’s dying plea. 01001000 01000101 01001100 01010000: HELP. You turn away. You will not kill those who have barely tasted life.

  That leaves you with one option. You turn towards the beam of light. It would be an end to war, an end of the horrible cycle of growth and harvest. You would have all of the knowledge of the previous races. It would be perfect, and that is why you can’t pick it. Call you cynical, but you don’t trust it. You highly doubt that the people who had been so horribly attacked by the Reapers would be willing to live alongside them. You know that that way will only lead to new, harsher pains. You turn back to the Catalyst, out of options.

  For a brief moment, you consider shooting the star brat. It's his stupid faulty code that got you here. Maybe if you managed to kill it, the races could defeat the Reapers. You decide against it. It would probably kill you before you could even damage it.

  You wish you had more time.

  Then you realize, you do.

  "Call off the Reapers!“

  Your request catches it off guard. You never thought you would see a millennia-old AI taken aback, but you see shock in its ghostly face. "Why?”

  "Because none of these options are good, so we'll come up with another one,“ You smile, already considering other ways to end the war.

  "There… There are no other options. I have considered it. These are the only ones.“

  "There is always another way, if you take the time to think of it.”

  "What do you suggest?“

  "You said it yourself; you are no longer needed, now that organics and synthetics are getting along. You can not fulfill your purpose anymore. The cycle will not work. So why not end it, once and for all. We can store the history of past cycles here, on the Citadel, and destroy the Reapers.”

  It pauses for a bit, until finally shaking its head. “Yes, the collaboration of organics and synthetics is… unprecedented, unexpected. But that does not mean it will last. You can not predict them being able to find peace with every synthetic.”

  You try to think of a come back to that, but you are drawing a blank. It’s right. You only just found peace, how can you prove you can maintain it? Hell, you can’t even believe that you might find peace with the Reapers.

   But what if...

  "What if we could prove to you that we can find peace?“

  Its interest showed blatantly on its face. "How?”

  "You order your machines to stand down, and I will do the same for my troops. If I can get all of them to stop fighting, you will do as I say. If not, then we will try something else.“

  "The chances of you managing that is absolute zero. I have never found chances so no-existent before.”

  You smile. “Perfect.”

  Now it looks confused. Granted, you probably sound like a madwoman, and maybe you are. But you know it’s wrong. The galaxy will be able to find peace. “Do we have a deal?”

   Its holographic mouth turns down, but you can see the traces of curiosity in its face. “Deal.” 

   Soon enough, you hear Hackett over your com.

   "Commander, I don’t know what you are doing up there, but it’s working! The Reapers have stopped attacking, now’s our chance to strike and-“

   You cut him off. "No, all forces will stand down. No one will attack the Reapers. If you attack, we are all dead. Stand. Down.”

   Of course they don’t understand. “Shepard are you nuts? This is our chance!”

   "Shepard, what the hell?“

   "What about everything we fought for?”

   "I SAID STAND DOWN!“ You scream across the channel over everyone’s protests, "You will attack only if attacked, or you will die where you stand, and there is nothing I can do to stop it. If you want to live to see tomorrow, you will stand down!”

   "But-“

   "Quarians, what happened on Rannoch? The Geth stopped attacking, but then what? They were about to come back stronger than ever and you would have been slaughtered! Instead, you stood down, and now you have a home planet and advanced AI’s helping you reclaim it. Could you have done that if you hadn’t stopped, if you had continued to fight?”

   You hear a smattering of quiet no’s over the line. To your amusement, you hear some Geth answer too. “Could you have made as much progress without the Geth?” This time, the no’s are louder, more confident. You hear Tali’s above the rest.

   "What about you, Krogan? Could you have cured the Genophage alone? If not for attempts at peace, would you be able to say that you are no longer a dying species, clinging to a dying rock? Without the aid of Turians and Salarians, what do you think would have happened. Or even, what about if you had not united under Urdnot Wrex, put aside your entire history of fighting for a chance to become great again? Where would you be now?“

   You hear Wrex’s growl through the static, "Dead.” Bakara’s answer of “sterile” and Grunt’s “disgraced” drove his point home.

   "I could go on. Humans and Turians learned the hard way at Relay 314, Batarians in the Skyllian Blitz. As for all the other races, how much needless bullshit have you gotten dragged into because the other races didn’t know when to stop? So many wars and pointless death. What could we have prevented? What can we prevent now? Who knows?! So please, for all of us, stand. down.“

   There is silence. For a good 30 seconds, there isn’t even static on the line. When you finally hear the crackle of someone clicking their mic on, you don’t know what to expect.

   "All Alliance units, stand down.” Thank fuck for Hackett.

   "Quarian fleet, stand down.“ Tali’s voice has never sounded so confident.

   "Firmly, Elcor ships, stand down”

   "Damn it, Omega Mercs, if any of you fire, I will personally shoot you out of the sky.“

   "Volus” “Batarians” “Geth” “Rachni” “Turians” “Hanar” “Vorcha” “Salarian” “Krogan” “Asari”

**"Stand down.“**

   You turn to look at the Catalyst. It is staring at you like you are an oddity in its data that it can’t figure out. "All ships are showing weapons as cooling down, going offline… This can not be correct. There was not any possible chance that this could happen. They are all defenseless. If the Reapers attacked right now, they would all be destroyed instantly.”

   You smile. “A chance at peace is worth it.”

   The Catalyst stops for a moment, considering the data and your conclusion. Finally, it turns towards the window and says “In all my cycles, I have never seen this.”

   "This cycle was left for longer than most, wasn’t it? The Protheans blocked your call for the Reapers to come harvest us. Maybe this is what would happen if any cycle was allowed to mature further?“

   "No, there has never been a cycle where the different life forms have acted like this. In every cycle, either one race rules over all others, or the races are all too busy fighting each other to fight us, or they sacrifice their allies in a futile attempt to save themselves. Never have the races worked together before, made sacrifices to allow others to attack or escape. Never have I seen… this.”

   You look out at where all the races are converged together. You might be imagining it, but you think you can see the Normandy weaving from ship to ship, picking up the leaders for the meeting that will no doubt have to happen now. You smile at your little ship, the ship that has died and been reborn with you. The ship where your family is gathered, waiting for you. You turn back to the Catalyst. “Then maybe we are an outlier.”

   "Maybe you are.“

   "So, will you honor our deal?”

   It nods. “As we speak, I am retrieving the data from my Reapers and storing it on the Citadel. When that is done, every Reaper will leave Earth and self destruct.”

   And so you sit and watch as, one by one, the Reapers fly away from Earth. In the distance you see flares of light, fireworks for the freedom of the galaxy.

   As the adrenaline that has been keeping you going leaves your body, you look down and realize that you probably should have died a good half hour ago from blood loss.

   "Uhhh, Normandy, I’m going to need an emergency medical evac. I hope you have a lot of spare blood"

   "Shepard?!“

   ”…I got shot. A lot.“

   That’s all you remember before you blacked out.

 

* * *

 

   For the second time in a year, you find yourself waking up when you truly thought you were dead.

   At least this time you hadn’t actually died, and no one was yelling that the facility was under attack, which is probably a good thing, considering that right now you can barely keep your eyes open.

   Damn, you really deserve a promotion.

   "Spirits, you really  _can_ do it.” Shit, now they know that you are awake.

   "It was much easier this time. All I needed to do was patch up the wounds and add some blood. No rebuilding involved.“ Oh, you had died. Damn it, not again.

   “How long was I dead?”

   “Only four hours,” Jacob answers, “I swear, Miranda is getting better at this.’

   You groan and sit up, nearly giving up on the effort when your vision starts to black out. But no, you are Commander Shepard, and you will be damned before rigor mortis stops you from doing your job.

   You take in the familiar sight of the Normandy’s med bay. Around you, your crew welcomes you back to the land of the living. You notice Chakwas pushing Miranda away, saying kindly "You might be able to treat the dead, but she’s alive now, and that’s my domain.” Miranda doesn’t argue, instead going to stand next to Jack. The women exchanged smirks, and you hear Jack mutter something about Dr. Frankenstein, to which Miranda laughs. Chakwas helps you to sit up fully and push back so the wall supports you. By the time you're done, you are panting so hard you can barely hear James chuckle about how out of shape you are. At least you don’t miss Cortez’ smack to his arm.

   Liara is the first to speak. “Shepard, what happened in there?”

   You groan. “Long story, and I don’t feel like saying it twice, so how about I tell everyone at the Council meeting that is no doubt going to come out of this?”

   “Fair enough,” Garrus says, “Actually, that should be starting soon, now that you are awake.”

   You look around the room, scanning quickly to make sure everyone is alive. They all are, they all made it. You let out a deep sigh, a silent thank you going up to whatever god had protected their asses this time.

   But of course, you are missing someone. “Did you save Anderson too?”

   Everyone looks away. Miranda is the one to finally answer.

   “We tried. We tried so hard Shepard. The Galaxy needs both of you, especially now, but in the end… I don’t know. Maybe he was too old, maybe he had been dead too long. Maybe he couldn’t be revived without your level of implants. Or maybe he just didn’t want to come back. Nothing we did worked. I’m so sorry.”

   You understand, or, at least, you will understand. For now, you push your emotions down. You'll morn, later, when you have time to yourself. For now, you pull yourself together for your team.

   After a few breaths, you decide that you should stand up and go face the shit storm that is waiting for you. A good plan in theory, not so much in practice.

   You have seen vids of baby animals attempting to stand before. Everyone that has ever been on the extranet has. As you fall, you think that you probably look like a fawn, or maybe a baby giraffe. Your legs buckle, and you wobble for half a second before collapsing in a heap of limbs. You pretend not to notice James asking Cortez if he can laugh now.

   From your heap on the floor, you bark out “Vega, you just earned yourself the honor of carrying me around until I can walk again.” Now it's Cortez’ turn to laugh.

   James mutters something under his breath, but none the less allows the crew to help you onto his back so that he's giving you a piggy back ride. “Where to, your highness?”

   "Let me guess, everyone is meeting in the Council chambers to decide what to do next?“ There is a chorus of affirmation from all around you. "Alright then. Onward, my noble steed!”

   And so you and your crew head off towards the Council chambers.

   Your entrance, like everything else about you, becomes one for the history books.

 

* * *

 

    "Did that all really happened?“

  "Yes but, some of the details have been lost in time. It all happened so very long ago.”

   "…“

   "What is bothering you, my sweet?”

   "Well, now the story is over. You have been telling me tales of The Shepard for years now. What will you tell me now?“

   "The story is not over just because you reached the end. You are living, breathing proof of that. You add your own chapters every day. Who knows, maybe one day, children will listen to their elders tell stories of you.”

   “… I think I’d like that.”

   “Well then, I look forward to hearing your stories.”

   “…”

   “Something else?”

   “Can you tell me another story?”

   “Well, it’s getting late… but sure, one more story.”

**Author's Note:**

> Once again, If you notice issues or have suggestions on how to fix parts, comment and I'll try to fix it. Thank you for reading!


End file.
